CORPUS Christi’s Lorebina Carrasco II and David Rey Ancheta started strong in their quest to be back again in the Palarong Pambansa arena by lording it over the blitz chess competition of the 2019 City Division Meet in Cagayan de Oro on Friday, September 27.
A former Palaro team gold medalist herself, Carrasco delivered a perfect 5 of 5 performance in taking the individual gold in secondary girls’ rivalry. While Ancheta edged out fellow 4.5-pointer Joseph Alexis dela Rama of Cagayan de Oro College (COC-Phinma) in the Bucholz tiebreaker to bag the top honor in secondary boys’ side.
Carrasco and Ancheta were also assured of the team gold as their respective teammates for the South District’s cause in Cristine delos Reyes of the Cagayan de Oro National High School (For Senior High) and Timothy Robert Mutya of Oro Christian Grace School finished with a silver and a bronze each.
The premier standard event with over one hour time control was still in progress (as of this writing) at Carmen National High School building with the Corpus Christi bets also favored to dominate again alongside Ruelle “Tawing” Canino of Kauswagan Elementary School and the Xavier University boys in elementary level.
“Maningkamot lang gyod sila kay combined performance sa blitz ug standard chess ang basehan pag select sa atong qualifiers para sa regional meet probably in Tubod, Lanao del Norte this coming December,” arbiter and school principal Angelito Felisilda told Sun.star Cagayan de Oro.
The multi-titled Canino, who is bound for an age-group tourney in Thailand, is also undefeated (5 of 5) in besting the elementary girls’ field. Both scoring 4 points, Canino’s compatriot Karylle Neri nosed out Samantha Trish Balquin of City Central School in the tiebreaker for them to end up with a silver and a bronze, respectively.
Marion Erx Daabay of Xavier University Grade School also won all his five-round matches to win the gold in elementary boys as baby Crusader Janrick Lagunay and Santiago Lumancas of Lumbia Elementary School settled for a silver and a bronze apiece.